1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector with a solder ball locking structure and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional electrical connector with a solder ball mounting structure includes a base 10 and a plurality of terminals 15. The base 10 has a plurality of terminal slots 11 and the terminals 15 are respectively disposed in the terminal slots 11. One end of the terminal is formed with a contact 16, and the other end of the terminal is formed with a horizontal connecting sheet 17. The connecting sheet 17 has a concave middle portion and a cup-shape, and is bonded to a solder ball 19.
The above-mentioned structure has the following drawbacks.
1. It is time-consuming to apply the flux to the connecting sheets 17 and align the solder balls 19 with the connecting sheets 17 using a jig.
2. The bottom end of the solder ball 19 is welded to the horizontal connecting sheet 17 and the welding point is located at the bottom. The base 10 cannot have a circumferential wall around the solder ball 19 to position the solder ball because the circumferential wall may interrupt the heat and is disadvantageous to the welding. So, the solder ball only can be placed on the concave, cup-shaped middle portion of the connecting sheet 17. However, the method for positioning the solder ball is not stable. A poor effect for positioning the solder ball on the connecting sheet 17 is more obvious when the solder ball connection points of the connector are denser such that the solder ball and the cup-shape of the connecting sheet are smaller.
3. There is no blocking structure around each solder ball, so the adjacent solder balls may contact each other to cause the short-circuit condition when the gap between the solder balls is relatively small.